The demand for no automation at all is clearly an initial bargaining position. What the union (hopefully) really wants is some kind of phase-in of most of this tech that allows current members to keep their jobs and retire with dignity before they are replaced by robots. IMO dignity like this is the absolute minimum we owe to ourselves as workers and citizens.

If the port operators were smart, they would have done this already and avoided the massive strike that will cost them billions of dollars, by using a small portion of that savings to keep their workers happy and on the job.